ROAST MACKEREL with GOOSEBERRY SAUCE

With this old Cornish recipe I return to my 1920s Recipe Book and as usual, I have few instructions!!

“Roast them with fennel”…. ok, but I decide to use fillets, rather than the whole fish. My husband and son in law came home a few weeks ago after a day’s fishing with loads of them! Rather than gut them, I just filleted the lot and froze them in pairs. “then make a good sauce with butter, parsley and gooseberries, all seasoned”.

That sounds easy….

“soak your mackerel, a very little, with your sauce, then serve them hot”.

 As I prepare my friend Jeny is coming for lunch. I have no fresh gooseberries in the freezer so use a tin. I used 3 mackerel fillets per person.

Take a medium roasting dish and very lightly oil the pan and put to warm in the preheated oven - 220 C

In a small saucepan, melt 2oz of butter [I also added a generous tablespoon of rapeseed oil to stop it burning], just over half the tin of gooseberries, a splash of the sauce they were in, S & P and lots of chopped parsley. I let the gooseberries cook off a little and the sauce thicken. The saved, drained fruit I will add for the last minute. I was amazed at how delicious the sauce tasted!

I had half a savoy cabbage and decided I will serve it with the fish, finely shredded, heating a small stir fry pan with a dash of rapeseed oil [olive oil is good too].

Time to bring it all together. I placed the fillets, skin side down in the very hot roasting pan, seasoned well with some finely chopped fennel, sea salt and fresh ground pepper and popped them into the oven. I started the cabbage as well, seasoning, then stir frying and turning for a few minutes.

After 6 or 7 mins I brushed some of the sauce, as instructed, over the fish and placed them back into the oven for 2 or 3 more mins. [all depending on the size of the fillets]. See pics on my Blog.

I assembled the dish by piling some cabbage on a plate, placing 3 fillets over the top along with a little more gooseberry sauce, plus some more on the side.

I was pleasantly surprised, no - more than that! It was delicious! The dish was just so tasty and the gooseberry sauce complimented the mackerel perfectly. Our forebears knew what they were doing. Mackerel and gooseberries - a perfect combination.

Note: I used a can of Princess Gooseberries in syrup. 300g [drained weight 145g]

If you use fresh gooseberries then you will need to add some sugar to the sauce.